VietNamNet Bridge – Com young sticky rice flakes - one of Ha Noi’s culinary specialties - has long been close to Hanoians’ hearts. Like the city where it was born, com is elegant, fresh and simple. Com is added to other types of sweets for its flavour. Among them, banh com, a sweet cake made of young sticky rice flakes and green beans, is a Vietnamese must-have for happy occasions, including weddings and Lunar New Year.

Special gift: Com cake is one of the gifts grooms traditionally give to brides on their engagement day to mark the happiness and delight of the young couple and their relatives. - VNS Photo Truong Vi

Com (Young sticky rice flakes)

As autumn approaches, gentle breezes replace the summer heat, the fragrance of milkwood pine flowers wafts over old streets, full moon lanterns color the city and the first com are made to indulge Hanoians, who are known as food connoisseurs.

"Taking a pinch of com and savoring its naturally sweet taste feels like we are absorbing the fragrance of the immense green paddy fields of our ancestors," Vu Bang wrote in "Ha Noi delicacies".

“Com is not only a Hanoian favourite. It also has an important place among Vietnamese foods as it is associated with Viet Nam’s rice-growing culture which has been maintained for centuries. Eating this dish gives us the fresh flavour and bucolic ambiance of the countryside,” said Pham Tuan Hai, a culinary expert and three-season Masterchef judge.

Dubbed by writer Thach Lam ’a dear gift from young green sticky rice’, com was first made in Vong Village on the northwestern outskirts of Ha Noi.

Legend has it that one autumn a thousand years ago, when the rice was almost ripe and ready to harvest, storms caused huge damage to local rice crops. Vong villagers went to their storm-torn paddy fields, picked the remaining green rice and brought it home to stir fry. The newly-invented dish helped villagers survive tough days. Locals had not expected the dish to taste so good. Ever since then, villagers have made com every autumn when the green rice is ready to harvest.

Com’s fame eventually went beyond the village. It became a much appreciated gift which people gave to relatives and acquaintances.

It was said that during the Nguyen dynasty, Vong villagers braved many challenges to offer com to kings in Hue Imperial City. Locals put com in a clay pot and kept it warm with a wood burning stove along the way to central Hue City. "Steam helped preserve the chewiness of com when it took days to reach the imperial city," Vu Bang wrote.

“Com is both popular and luxurious. It can be found in vendors’ baskets on Ha Noi streets or tastefully arranged on the tables of fine hotels,” said Tuan Hai.

Com makers are hard-working early birds. For centuries, they woke up as early as 4am to pick green sticky rice jewelled with dewdrops.

“Much meticulousness and skillfulness are required in the process,” said Nguyen Vinh Thao, who has forty years of experience in making com and who is part of the fifth generation of her family to carry on the tradition.

"Villagers learned to make com when they were very young. By supporting the family business, they gradually adopted needed skills and secrets to continue the tradition from generation to generation," said Thao.

“Authentic com must be flat, lime-green, chewy, sticky and smell pleasant like the scent of green rice,” said Dao Trung Hieu, a member of the fourth generation of his family to make com in Vòng Village.

Although rice is grown in all the northern, central and southern regions of Viet Nam, com is only made in the three villages of Vong, Me Tri and Kim Lu on the outskirts of Ha Noi.

Banh com (Sweet cake made of young sticky rice and green beans)

In the old days, people waited until autumn every year to enjoy com since food preservation methods were not available.

Popular and luxurious: Com can be found in vendors’ baskets on Ha Noi streets or tastefully arranged on the tables of fine hotels. –VNS Photo Hong Van         Culinary legacy: Com is made in the three villages of Vong, Me Tri and Kim Lu on the outskirts of Ha Noi. –VNS Photo Doan Tung

A hundred years ago, a Hanoian woman came up with the idea of making banh com, (a type of sweet cake made of com and green beans) so people could savour the taste of com all year round.

Shops on Ha Noi’s Hang Than Street in the Old Quarter have a hundred-year tradition of making com cakes. Among them, Vinh Loc shop offered such tasty com cakes that King Bao Dai visited the shop in the early 20th century to praise the exquisite taste of their cakes.

Com cake is also one of the gifts which grooms traditionally give to brides on their engagement day.

Many fans

To this day com and banh com have many homegrown fans.

"Com cake marks the happiness and delight of the young couple and their relatives," wrote Thach Lam in "Ha Noi: 36 streets and guilds".

"I still remember my grandma buying com and banh com when I was small," said Nguyen Phuong Hoa, a Hanoian living in the US.

"I really miss the delightful fragrance of com. I think all Hanoians love this fresh, fragrant and tasty dish," said Hoa.

Chef Tuan Hai is passionate about Ha Noi food, especially com. His forthcoming cookbook will introduce menus and recipes for new dishes with com. “People think of com when they talk about Ha Noi,” Hai said.

VNS

Hong Van